8:32 a.m., Sept. 16, 2010----Matthew Churgin, who earned an honors degree with distinction in electrical engineering at the University of Delaware in 2010, was selected a 2009-2010 finalist of the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Electrical or Computer Engineering (ECE) Student Awards.

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One of only five finalists in the country, this honor defines Churgin as one of the top graduating ECE students in the nation for 2010.

The national competition recognizes “outstanding scholastic excellence and high moral character, coupled with demonstrated exemplary service to classmates, university, community, and country.”

Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) is a 106-year-old honor society for electrical and computer engineering students and professionals. The society has more than 200,000 members and 200 university chapters.

Today, Churgin is a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is studying biomedical imaging under a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Interfaces Scholarship. As part of the fellowship, Churgin is taking both medical school and engineering classes, as biomedical imaging is an interdisciplinary field that requires interaction and cooperation between engineers and doctors.

Churgin served as president of the University's HKN chapter, Epsilon Omicron, during his senior year at UD. He was also vice president of IEEE and was a University Honors Program Writing Fellow. For his Honors Program senior thesis, Churgin conducted undergraduate research on tissue elasticity with Takashi Buma, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

He received the 2010 Undergraduate Student Award, given by the American Association of University Professors (AAUW) at UD to “outstanding seniors who plan to attend graduate school in preparation for an academic career in university or college teaching or research.”

Two other electrical engineering students previously received honorable mention in the Eta Kappa Nu competition, Jill Desmond in 2009 and Ming-Jay Shiao in 2007. In 2006, the University's HKN chapter, Epsilon Omicron, received the society's Outstanding Chapter Award, which is given on the basis of service activities.

Article by Karen B. Roberts